Automatic fire-door.



No. 726,034. f y PATENTED APR-.21,1903. O. O. DONBOKER OJ. A. NAGLB. u AUTOMATIC FIRE DOOR. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 5, 1902.

I0 MODEL.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

oRIN c. Do-Nvr-ECKERiAND .moois- A. NAGLE, oir-nLLnNTowN,

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j AUTOMATIC FIRE-Doon.

SPECIFICATION formingv part of'Letters Patent 1 To. 726,034, dated Aprilv21 ,1903. Application tiledSeptember 5, 1902. Serial 12m-122,252. (No model.)

.To all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that we, ORIN C. DONECKER and, JACOB A. NAGLE, citizens of theUnited States, residinggat Allentown, in thejcounty of Lehigh, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Automatic Fire-Doors, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to a novelconstruction of apparatus for preventing flames from ascending in elevator-shafts, light-shafts, well-openings, and similar passages in the case of lire; and it consists inthe novel combination of mechanism whereby doors made of tireproof material are caused to be normally held in open position; but upon the occurrence of a re the heat generated thereby will cause the locking devices for said doors to be released, whereby the doors will automatically fall, and therebycheck the upward sweep of ames through the shaft from one story toanother. .The doors are preferably hung on spring-hinges, which ser-Ve to assist in the descent of the said doors when released.

The invention further consists of novel details of construction, all as will be hereinafter fully set forth.

Figure 1 represents -a vertical sectional View of an automatic apparatus for elevatorshafts embodying our invention. resents a section on line a: to, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a'section on line y y, Fig. l, but with the doors shown in closed position. Fig. 4. represents a section on Aline-.c 2,"Figx 2.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in the figures.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the walls or casing of an elevator-shaft, lightshaft, well-opening, or the like embodying our invention. o

2 designates doors,.which arehinged at the points 3 to any suitable'supporti, it being-.understood that said, doors arenormally in open or upright position, as will be understood from Figs. 1, 2, and 4.-, said doors, however, being shown in closed orl substantially horizontal position in Fig. 3, said doors being held in their horizontal position `by means of the abutments 4. Y y y 2n designates ropes attached to the main Fig. 2 rep-v doors ne'ar theircenters, as seen by dotted lines in Fig. 1 and full lines in Fig. 3. These ropes may extend to any desired,v point, where they maybe,L used for raising the doors by hand when desired.

5 designates a hook or staple attached to the upper sideof the doors 2, which when said doors arel inopen positiomas indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, is 'in alinement with a pair of hooks or staples 6, which are secured in fixed position to a Wall of the shaft 1.

7 designates a'bolt, which .may be a plain cylindrical piece of metal secured to the lower extremities of branches of the rope, chain, or other connection 8, which latter passes over the pulleys 9 and is attached to the weight 10, said weight being held in position by means of the connection 11, which passes over the pulley 12 andthence downwardly under the pulley 13 and thence over the pulley 14, as indicated at the lower right-hand portion of Fig. 2, i-t heilig understood that the lower portion ofthe connection 11 is secured to anysuitable fixed pointfbeing carried downasniany floors as desired.

15 designates a fusible link or chain inserted in the'connectionll,substantially in the position indicated in'Fig. 2, sothat'said connectionV normallyI is'located between the pulleys 13 and'14, 'whereby incase ofiire the fusible portion of the connection will melt, thereby permitting the weight/10 to f-all.

The operation is as follows: The parts normally appear as seen in Figs. k1 and 2, the doors 2 .being-inlopen.' position, so that the passage of the elevator-car is not impeded. In case of fire the heat melting the fusible link 15 will cause the weight 10 to be unsupported and the same will fall, thereby exerting a pull upon the lconnections 8, and thus removing the locking bolts or vpins-Tfrom their engagement with the eyes orstaples 5 and 6, whereupon the doors'2 will fall and assume the position seen in Fig.3.l

We have not deemed it necessaryto'de-l auxiliary doors 17, which are secured in po-y ICO sition by the hinges 18, said doors being folded back upon the main doors 2, as will be understood from Fig. 2, when said main doors are in elevated position, it being, however, understood that said auxiliary doors are caused to be turned into the position seen in Fig. 3 when the main doors 2 fall by reason of the springs 19, the construction of which may be varied according to requirements.

lt will of course be understood that suitable checking devices or buffers may be enuployed to prevent the main doors 2 from descend-ing too abruptly when the locking pin or bolt 7 is released. It will further be apparent that various changes may be made by those skilled in the art which will come within the scope of our invention, and we do not, therefore, desire to be limited in every instance to the exact construction shown and described.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a device of the character named, the combination of a shaft, a main door therein mounted to swing-from a horizontal to a vertical position, an eye or staple on said main door, and an eye or staple secured to a wall of said shaft, said eyes being in proximity when the door is opened, a locking-pin adapted to engage said eyes, said eyes and lockingpin being behind the door and parallel therewith when the latter is in its open position, a connection extending from said pin around a pulley and having a weight thereon, aconnection from said weight passing around another series of pulleys, and a fusible link in said connection whereby the heat generated in case of lire will melt the same and cause said main door lo automatically fall.

2. In a device of the character named, the combination of a shaft, a main door therein mounted to swing from a horizontal to a vertical position, an eye or staple on said main door, and an eye or staple secured to a Wall of said shaft, said eyes being in proximity when the door is opened, a locking-pin adapted to engage said eyes, said eyes and lockingpin being behind the door and parallel therewith when the latter is in its open position, a connection extending from said pin around a pulley and having a weight thereon, a connection from said Weight passing around another series of pulleys, a fusible link in said connection whereby the heat generated in case of tire will melt the same and cause said main door to automatically fall, an auxiliary door hinged to said main door and adapted to be normally folded back upon said main door, and a spring for closing said auxiliary door when the main door drops.

3. In a device of the character named, the combination of a shaft, main doors hinged therein, auxiliary doors 17 hinged to said main doors and adapted to be folded back upon said main doors when the latter are in open position, a spring common to said doors for closingsaid auxiliary doors when the main doors fall, locking devices 5 and 6 common to said main doors, and a Wall of said shaft, locking-pins adapted to engage said devices, connections from said pins, pulleys over which said connections pass, a Weight to which an end of said connections is secured, another connection extending,r from said weight, pulleys around which said last-mentioned connection passes, and a fusible link in said last-mentioned connection.

In testimony whereof we have signed our naines to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ORIN C. DONECKER. JACOB A. NAGLE. Vitnesses:

W. D. STERNER, B. A. LAUB. 

